'With or without West': Saudi Arabia ready for unilateral action on Syria

Saudi Arabia intends to pursue an independent policy in the Arab world after the US resorted to a diplomatic solution to the Syria and Iran crises. The Saudi envoy to UK says the kingdom is ready to ensure “regional peace” without Western support.

The kingdom’s ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin
Abdulaziz al-Saud, said that the Western approach to the region
is a “dangerous gamble” that jeopardizes stability in
the Middle East.

Instead Riyadh, a geopolitical rival of Iran and Syria, wants to
independently arm the Syrian insurgents, saying the country
“cannot remain silent, and will not stand idly by,”
Abdulaziz wrote in a New York Times commentary.

The prince accused the US coalition of allowing “one regime
to survive and the other to continue its program for uranium
enrichment, with all the consequent dangers of
weaponization."

The accusations come despite global efforts, led by Russia and
the US, for a peaceful resolution to the drawn-out Syrian crisis.
The international community is placing high hopes on the Geneva-2
peace conference on Syria, scheduled for Jan. 22, which is set to
bring the sides of the Syrian conflict to the negotiation table.

They also follow recent critical statements by some Western
politicians and media, saying Saudi Arabia has already been
providing military support to the Syrian rebels and thus fueling
the raging conflict in the Arab country.

In regards to Syria, Abdulaziz said that despite international
effort to destroy the weapons of mass destruction the “West
must see that the regime itself remains the greatest weapon of
mass destruction of all.”

Saying that the kingdom has “global responsibilities,”
Abdulaziz claimed that Riyadh “will act to fulfill these
responsibilities, with or without the support of our Western
partners.”

Despite standing “shoulder to shoulder” for years
“this year, for all their talk of 'red lines,' when it
counted, our partners have seemed all too ready to concede our
safety and risk our region’s stability.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a former Italian prime minister Massimo
D'Alema blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for “supplying weapons
and equipment” to the rebels in Syria, as cited by
Itar-Tass.

In November, The Washington Post citing senior Gulf officials,
reported that Saudi Arabia was trying to independently provide
military support to the rebels after previously aligning itself
with US interests in the region.

“The Saudis plan to expand training facilities they operate
in Jordan and increase the firepower of arms sent to rebel groups
that are fighting extremist elements among them even as they
battle the Syrian government,” the paper
reported.

Tuesday’s report by International Centre for the Study
of Radicalisation at King’s College estimated that over 1,000
Saudi fighters are fighting with the radicals in Syria from a
total number of some 11 thousand, including many EU nationals.

The top five countries-contributors are all in the Middle East:
with up to 2,089 from Jordan, followed by Saudi Arabia (1,016),
Tunisia (970), Lebanon (890), and Libya (556).

But, according to The Washington Post, negotiations were also
under way between several Gulf countries of setting up a
“parallel operation” independent of the US.

Media reports said that Western diplomats hinted during a summit
of opposition backers in London last week that they don’t really
mind if Syrian President Bashar Assad stays in
power, at least during a transition period.

“Our Western friends made it clear in London that Assad
cannot be allowed to go now because they think chaos and an
Islamist militant takeover would ensue,” an unnamed senior
member of the Syrian National Coalition, close to officials from
Saudi Arabia, told Reuters.

“Some do not even seem to mind if he runs again next
year,” the source told Reuters, wondering whether the West
has forgotten that Assad “gassed his own people.”

A rift between the US-Saudi Arabian foreign policy was relevant
on Sunday, when a former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki
al-Faisal, voiced concern that Saudi Arabia is being isolated
from the diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

“It is important for us to sit down at the same table,”
he said in an
interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We have been
absent.” Speaking at World Policy Conference in Monaco same
day he said, "What was surprising was that the talks that
were going forward were kept from us.”"How can you
build trust when you keep secrets from what are supposed to be
your closest allies?"

Meanwhile, Russia and US continue their joint effort to stage the
Geneva-2 conference in January.

Abu Mohammed al Joulani, the leader of the Al-Nusra Front of up
to 20,000 fighters, in an interview to Al Jazeera said that his
group would not accept the outcome of the Geneva conference. The
leader also cautioned Saudi Arabia against recently improved
relations between the US and Iran.

“We will not recognize any results that come out of the
Geneva-2 Conference, nor will the children or women of Syria.
Those taking part in the conference do not represent the people
who sacrificed and shed blood. Besides, who has authorized them
to represent the people?”

“If the Assad regime remained in power, which is in the
interest of the super powers and the Safavids, then the next
target will be the Arabian Peninsula, now known as Saudi
Arabia,” Joulani said.

Less than a week ago, jihadists from the Al-Nusra Front captured
the town of Adra some 20 kilometers north of Damascus and carried
out a brutal massacre of civilians. RT reported from the massacre site with witness
accounts which tell horrific stories of people being burned alive
and children slaughtered.